


nightlight

by talonyth



Series: choose your own adventure! [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: I'm Bad At Tagging, Idol AU, M/M, akaashi is a ruthless manager, bokuto is smitten, kuroo is thirsty, tsukki regrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-26 02:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6220228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talonyth/pseuds/talonyth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bokuto and Kuroo find their popularity is dropping but lucky for them with a manager like Akaashi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	nightlight

**Author's Note:**

> okay this was another quick drabble because i need to start up my engines, i've been struggling so much to write anything at all and choose your own adventures drabble are always fun! here's the [twitter thread](https://twitter.com/tobiyou/status/708029158014767105) that decided what would happen!

The grim expression on Akaashi’s face doesn’t suit him. Never has, in Kuroo’s eyes, even if he shows it quite a lot lately. He seems stressed and, well, it’s probably not surprising. A smile would look a lot better on Akaashi, though.

“If this keeps up, you’re over. Your sales have been plummeting and your popularity is dropping constantly. I’m afraid this isn’t looking good for the two of you.” 

“Tell us something new, Akaashi. Something _good_.” If only he felt as calm as he sounds. It’s not as if he hasn’t realized that things haven’t been as they used to be before. Him and Bokuto, they’ve been a duo for 7 years now but there are newer, younger units going around now. He’d call them flimsy if he didn’t know how hard it is to build yourself up in a business like that of an idol. Those kids haven’t got it easy either. 

“If you insist.” Akaashi shifts in his chair, fingers tracing the rim of his cup absent-mindedly. "...Bokuto-san has been very quiet as of late.”

“And _that’s_ good news to you, Akaashi!? I’m feeling hurt and betrayed at once!” Kuroo can’t help but snort and exchange a short but meaningful look with Akaashi. The gravity of the situation can be measured by how well Bokuto fares. And lately… it hasn’t been good. 

“It was a joke, please calm down.” Akaashi takes a sip of coffee and runs his fingers through his hair. Kuroo is still certain that guy hasn’t always been a manager. There is an air of something else around him. “The good news is I have arranged quite a bit for you two to work on raising that popularity. The other units might be young but don’t forget - you have experience to show. For now, we will focus on that. And here is especially good news for Bokuto-san.”

Bokuto perks up, slumpy back almost forgotten at the prospect of something to fix all of this. If it hadn’t been for him Kuroo would have never considered becoming an idol. He used to mock that when he was younger. Then, by the end of high school, Bokuto dragged him along in all this and he somehow ended up going along. Bokuto’s passion fuelled his own and once he found out that being an idol did not mean something as simple as showing off as much as it was a calculated business. 

“What is this about? Is this a surprise for me?”

“In a way,” Akaashi says and he has that particular way of grinning showing his scheming personality. It’s not like he ever tries to hide that. “I am certain you remember the young songwriter we collaborated with last summer. Thanks to him, you ruled the summer. Well, I did my magic and convinced him to work with you again.”

Kuroo’s eyes widen. No way in hell. “How the hell did you get Tsukishima to work with us again? He _hates_ us.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. In fact, he’s just a little shy. You just have to push the right buttons. Besides,” and now Kuroo gets what Akaashi meant when he sees Bokuto’s expression all alight, “If this isn’t motivation enough for at least Bokuto-san, then I don’t know what else could be. Is this good news enough?”

Of course Bokuto yells yes a thousand times over. He’d been so taken in by the quiet songwriter that he spent the entire summer and autumn and winter talking about him non-stop without ever taking a step. Not that they could, seeing as their contracts wouldn’t let them have any kind of relationship. Maybe Bokuto’s more considerate than Kuroo gives him credit for. 

“Okay, so when do we meet him?” Bokuto _vibrates_. Suddenly, Kuroo feels a lot less worried about their career. Even if it were to end, at least this horrid crush and the wailing and whining attached to it could stop. He’d _make_ it stop if he needed to. Push Bokuto right into Tsukishima’s arms or anything of the like. 

“Hold your horses, you idiot. It’s not everything you wanted to say, right, Akaashi?”

“So greedy, Kuroo-san.” A chuckle lightens the atmosphere in the stuffy room and Kuroo curses internally over how this little sound soothes his mind. Even if it’s just a little bit. Each to their own crush, he guesses. “But no, it’s not everything. I have been thinking about this for quite a while now, ever since we’ve been working together, in fact. Lately, the choreographies younger units go for are a lot… more… how do I put it…”

“Thrilling.”

“You could say that, for a lack of better words. I think you have become too repetitive.”

“Well, it’s been kind of hard ever since Sawamura got himself injured. We’re kind of in a rut ever since and it doesn’t seem like he’s going to come back any time soon, is it?”

“No but that is hardly a reason. Or are you telling me you have been slacking off because Sawamura-san hasn’t been here? Half-assing your choreographies is like dooming yourselves. In hindsight, it’s perhaps what happened. It wasn't everything that tipped your popularity but it might have been playing its part.”

Kuroo clicks his tongue, Bokuto groaning next to him. All the good mood he’d shown suddenly dissipates again, and all just because they know it’s the truth. It wouldn’t be as irritating if it wasn’t. 

“What are you suggesting then.” He’d like to sound a lot less like it doesn’t faze him but it’s been months ever since Sawamura hasn’t been around and Bokuto and him had tried their best to deal with that. Hearing they had been doing a half-assed job was definitely not what he imagined wanting it to seem like. 

“Hm. I’m suggesting you’ll work with someone new on that now. I talked with Sawamura-san about this and indeed, he said it might not even be possible for him to return. At least not on such a physically straining job. He did say he would help with planning new choreographies for the two of you though. You will just need a new instructor but I have quite the right person for this job as well.”

For how dire the situation is, Akaashi smiles quite a lot. Mischievously, admittedly but still. And the worst is that it’s a thousand times better than the dark expression from before - the worst for Kuroo’s heart that is. If only he could shut that out once and for all. 

“You’re amazing, you’ve got everything prepared, haven’t you? We’d be so lost without you.” Bokuto sounds at least alive. Still irritated but appreciative. 

“It’s a pleasure. And it will be once I see the two of you break a sweat under my lead as well. I admit it has been quite a while but I’m positive I can help you regain your glory.”

Kuroo can feel Bokuto turned to him with a single question, the same running through Kuroo’s mind over and over again. He’d like to share that puzzled stare with his partner but his eyes are glued on Akaashi, frozen on the spot as that devious smile burns into his mind. He’s probably not even blinking at the prospect of having Akaashi instruct them which means he’d have to actively _dance with them_ and occasionally _touch_ them and---- 

“Kuroo, man. We’re fucked,” is what Bokuto hisses under his breath, voice low enough for Akaashi to probably, very likely, hopefully not to hear that. 

Kuroo can’t find it in him to reply to that, unable to tear his eyes away from Akaashi who keeps the eye contact with such ease that it’s mildly to incredibly irritating. It would probably be bad if he found himself thinking he very much hoped to be fucked if it was Akaashi, just to avert his eyes in horror of his own thoughts. He did _not_ just think that.

Kuroo manages to control himself just fine most of the times. He’s been living with this crush ever since he first met Akaashi, thinking he just found him overly attractive. Not much of a surprise, everyone probably went through a phase with a crush on Akaashi. That’s why he didn’t take it seriously. He’s their manager and he can’t get himself into a relationship anyway. 

The more he thought about that, the more he wanted to have Akaashi. And that small, quiet and disgustingly lovely laugh of his he does sometimes, it makes absolutely nothing better. Except for the sight. How fantastic he looks with an expression lit up by a smile. 

“That surprised? The look on your faces is worth the pain already. I’d quit dancing after I had a quite unsuccessful streak.”

“....Wait, you did this for, like, a living?” Thank every deity existing for Bokuto and his stupid questions, they distract Kuroo temporarily from his completely unprofessional thoughts. It’s not that he wants to let those loose. Quite the contrary, if he could, he’d shut them far, far away where they’d never get to even as much as breathe anymore. Only to find that the next revelation just makes all of this worse. Damn Bokuto and his stupid questions. 

“I’d planned to and I started out in competitive dancing but it proved to be impossible for me to continue after my partner had quit as well. I’d tried to get back to it but it never really worked. I guess I was quite disheartened even if I never admitted that.” Akaashi sighs, Bokuto trying to get Kuroo’s attention by staring at him very intently but Kuroo pays it no mind. He’d like to not think about Akaashi in a proper suit, with hair slicked back performing standard dances with arms wrapped tightly and steadily around a very lucky and probably just as beautiful lady as him. 

He shuts his eyes closed for a second, opens them again with vision still blurry when Akaashi says: “But I want you to succeed and I know you want it just as much. Besides, I’d hate to lose to Sugawara-san.”

“Ah, so that’s what it is about. Think you can make us more popular than Eclipse the same way he does? Instructing and managing at the same time?” Sugawara had always posed a threat with his youngster group. Pulling their strings just as he wanted them to move. He looks so nice too, nobody even dreams of seeing how calculating is. Annoying, even. This just fuels Kuroo more to excel. 

His heart doesn’t stop racing, thrumming, bursting when he looks into Akaashi’s eyes glistening and he knows by how tense Bokuto is next to him that this is a declaration of war. “I am quite eager to try and do just that. And I won’t let you rest until we will.”

It’s probably less wise to take words like those out of context but Kuroo feels he can indulge himself for a little before being devoured entirely. Not that he minds. Not quite as much as he should.

**Author's Note:**

> eclipse is a group consisting of hinata, kageyama, noya and tanaka and suga has his hands full. god knows how he survives that. and no, daichi did not get injured during practice, he actually slipped on a wet rag back at home and broke a rib. he's an idiot, i'm sorry daichi.
> 
> in case you wonder about kuroo and bokuto as an idol unit: they are called nightlight (hence the title) and their music is not as obscure as their name suggests, they are actually more of a hip hop unit. i imagined them sounding a lot like rip slyme or rhymester. if you don't know either band, make sure to check them out!


End file.
